A federal judge has denied a request from Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia for a stay of his order that an admissions policy he believes discriminates against Asians be removed, The Washington Post reports.
A few weeks ago Judge Claude Hilton that the admissions policy at Thomas Jefferson High School in Fairfax County violated federal law. The school had planned to implement a holistic review process that would not just consider grades and test scores but other factors like socioeconomic status.
Many believed that the new admissions policy discriminated against Asian Americans. This year’s freshman class saw an increase in diversity. Black students increased from 1% to 7%. Hispanic representation increased from 3% to 11%.
However, many Asian Americans were upset when they saw that Asian American representation decreased from 73% to 54%, NBC Washington reports. A parents group filed a lawsuit against the school.
Judge Hilton ultimately ruled in their favor. He claimed the policies were an act of “racial balancing” and discriminated against Asian Americans. He ordered that the school stop using the admissions policy
Fairfax County Public Schools has requested a stay of that order. District officials say that the order would be disruptive as the review process is already “well underway,” The Washington Post reports.
While some Asian Americans have applauded the decision, other Asian American civil rights groups have condemned it.
“For well over a decade, the admission process at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology continuously failed to identify all Black, Latinx, and underserved Asian American students with the aptitude to excel at TJ. All students deserve a fair shot at receiving an excellent education, regardless of their income, where they grew up, or their racial and ethnic background,” Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC, Asian American LEAD and other groups said in a joint statement.
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